Omnivore - Lauterbach not trembling

We ate at the new Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Little Five Points Tuesday evening. I’ll report about our meal later this week in Grazing.

But here’s some gossip: I ran into Christiane Lauterbach of Knife & Fork and Atlanta Magazine while dining at the newbie. I recently quoted a post in part about Christiane by Riccardo Ullio in his new blog. (Ullio owns the new Escorpion as well as Fritti and Sotto Sotto.)

My post was (sarcastically) entitled: “Ullio starts blog, critics tremble.”

“I am not trembling,” Christiane told me and referred to herself as “collateral damage” in Ullio’s dispute with John Kessler of the AJC. Their polite but pointed debate was prompted by John’s unsatisfactory visit to check out Fritti’s new oven.

Ullio correctly pointed out that Christiane has never liked the pizza at Fritti. “But I actually like the bar at Escorpion, where he saw me,” Christiane said, “so I have no idea why I got dragged into his argument with John about Fritti.” Foodie drama!

Speaking of Escorpion, I received this email from a reader:

We have been to Escorpión three or four times now. We almost cried when Lupe closed. The Margaritas and chili rellenos were the best. We like the Margaritas at Escorpión but they are not up to what they were at Lupe. Ditto with the chili rellenos. They are way too cheesy and just not up to Lupe. The carne asada tacos are nowhere near as good as Nuevo Laredo’s. If only Nuevo Laredo had decent Margaritas and was in Midtown, we would be in heaven. We really want Escopión to succeed but wish it were more Lupe-like.

We had the chicken mole. The mole was good but they were very skimpy with it....

I’ve raved about my favorite foodie magazine, Gastronomica, here several times. I don’t know how I’ve missed this similar publication, Alimentum, which specializes in “the literature of food.” Beside publishing great essays, it is involved with teaching food-writing workshops. Here’s a taste of the last issue’s contents:

A boy is mesmerized by cheese puffs, a woman must choose between delicious and religious, a girl insists the moon is an outdoor sandwich, a ship’s chef creates a scandal with chocolate chicken, a chicken-dripping delivery man haunts a city, a woman remembers her dad through his love of yoghurt, and much more...30 writers and poets in all!...

Bar One is the latest name afixed to the building on Memorial Drive that was, most recently, an El Toro.